Freelancing is an interesting profession given the fact that you are your own boss. You don’t require following a certain office schedule and don’t need to be accountable to someone. You can work from wherever you want to work from and whenever it feels good to you. Besides, if you are good at your work you can easily earn a handsome amount.
Bangladesh is the third largest freelancing destination and sources report, the country has around one million freelancers. Although freelancing can be great in-terms of earning money and having the freedom but at times it gets lonely and pretty boring. Freelancers often work from home turning them into hermit and disconnected from the world. It affects one’s productivity and expansion of work resulting in lack of inspiration, motivation and potential isolation. Furthermore, in a country like Bangladesh where social setting is as such that if you don’t go to office or at least don’t have an office address it becomes a matter of social status.
This is where coworking comes into work.
[su_note note_color="#f8f9f9" text_color="#25618a" radius="13"]This story is fourth and final part of a four parts series we are running on coworking to better understand it, since we believe coworking is how we will be working in the future. Thank you, hubdhaka, for teaming up with us and supporting us to make this series possible.[/su_note]
CoworkingCoworking is a working environment where people choose to work side by side with other people and share space and other amenities when coworkers are not essentially from same or similar background or team or company. You can rent a space for yourself and work whenever it fits for you. Coworking is especially good for people who work round the clock, don’t need a large office, and want to live with a supportive community of likeminded people. Freelancers, other independent professionals and startups are the main consumers of coworking spaces. However, now distributed teams of big corporations are also taking advantages of coworking spaces.
Coworking gives you a reason to get out of your cave and interact with people. These are few specific benefits of coworking for freelancers:
Be focused and get things done: Working from home is an option but when you work from home your working area rotates between your bed room, kitchen, drawing room and few other places. You watch TV for few minutes, chat with someone at home about politics, and take a nap when you feel like it. There is no shortage of distractions at home. Someone is talking, watching something interesting, crying, and asking for help and more. When you are busy managing your distractions your day is gone and you made almost zero progress. Contrary, a coworking space is designed to get things done. You go there to do your work and it is true for all other members as well. You will get a lot more done in a coworking space than working from home or besides your buddies at their place.
There is no shortage of distractions at home. Someone is talking, watching something interesting, crying, and asking for help and more. When you are busy managing your distractions your day is gone and you made almost zero progress. Contrary, a coworking space is designed to get things done.
Meet people and make connections: Freelancing is a lonely profession. It seldom requires you to go out and meet people. But this is a disadvantage in our age. Today, networking is the key. Good connection will take you a long way. Being said that, freelancing also demands hours to get things done and meet deadlines making it difficult for one to go out and network. Joining a coworking space is beneficial because coworkers come from diverse backgrounds. Networking opportunities are built in here. Person next to you may be a potential client or adviser or someone who can help you with learning a new skill. Come with a mindset to make new connections and mingle with people. Bring your business card and get to know people.
Inspiration: Coworking often creates a supportive community that helps and inspires each other. As a freelancer you may feel low when work alone or feel self doubt about your ability to go forward and accomplish things but once you work around people who are of your kind and also doing great stuffs it boosts your confidence. Furthermore, coworkers help each other to accomplish goals, and hosts events to learn new things. Where we work, how we work and with whom we work make huge difference in how much we accomplish. Coworking helps us to make a balance in all these parameters and become better person every day.
As a freelancer you may feel low when work alone or feel self doubt about your ability to go forward and accomplish things but once you work around people who are of your kind and also doing great stuffs it boosts your confidence.
Affordable office: Dhaka is expensive. Finding an office space within one’s means is difficult. Moreover, funding single person office or office for a small team is even difficult. Alternatively, coworking space offers a long array of options to take from. You can choose a package that suits you and pay accordingly.
Have fun and be happy at your work: Happiness at work is a widely explored topic of our age. Companies are spending millions in making their employees happy at work because once you are happy you deliver best, you become more creative and you accomplish more. What makes someone happy at work? There may be a long list of things and also it may vary person to person. However, there is a common cord to connect happiness with work: fun and freedom. Coworking gives you both. Coworking space like hubdhaka arranges events like Happy Hours, Fun event, networking night to help coworkers to enjoy their work. Moreover, having fun is easy when you work side by side with a supportive community.
There is a common cord to connect happiness with work: fun and freedom. Coworking gives you both.
The whole idea of coworking is designed around the needs of freelancers, independent professionals and small startups. It gives you freedom, fun, opportunities, modern amenities, and community. In Bangladesh, coworking needs to have more attention and we also need more coworking spaces given the fact that we have a huge freelancers who need great workstation to deliver at their best and also to best utilize our limited resources.
Image Credit: hubdhaka
